Alistair Brownlee wins gold for Britain in men's triathlon as brother Jonny takes bronze at London 2012 Olympic Games

A triathlon course that took in Buckingham Palace, Constitution Hill,
Wellington Arch and Hyde Park was an appropriately historic setting in which
to write a unique new chapter in the folklore of British sport.

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Pride of Yorkshire: Alistair (right) and Jonny Brownlee on the podium after the triathlonPhoto: AFP

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Brothers in arms: the Brownlees take gold and bronze in the triathlonPhoto: AFP/Getty Images

It is 112 years since Reginald and Laurie Doherty became our first brothers to win Olympics medals in the same individual sport but their feat of gold and bronze in Paris back in 1900 was finally matched yesterday by the fabulous Brownlee family.

Alistair, the older of the two siblings at 24, won gold while Jonny overcame a 15-second time penalty to join him on the victory podium in third.

Sandwiched between the two brothers was Javier Gomez, himself a double world champion, and one of the greats of triathlon history. Those raw facts, however, still barely do justice to this sporting fairytale.

From the way Alistair single-handedly dismantled the field to Jonny’s dramatic finishing line collapse because of exhaustion, it was an event that felt quite epic as well as historic. As one spectator observed, one single household in the small Yorkshire village of Bramhope is now 37th, ahead of Mexico and Belgium, in the Olympic medals’ table.

“There are hundreds of emotions,” said Alistair. “I’m happy, excited, overwhelmed and a bit relieved. I’m immensely proud that my brother could get bronze. We made no secret of the fact that we wanted to get two of us on the podium and that’s not easy considering Britain had never won a medal in this sport before. It shows the strength of training together, pushing each other and the relationship that we have.”

Their end achievement was clearly colossal but what most impressed on Tuesday was the manner in which the medals were delivered. There had been much pre-race talk of tactics and it was clear that numerous alliances had been privately formed within the 57-strong field in an attempt to neutralise the Brownlees. The bottom line, however, was that short of tripping one of them over, there was nothing any other competitor could do to seriously threaten their dominance of the race.

Alistair, in particular, simply swam, cycled and ran as hard as he could for as long as he could. Eventually, with about 3km to go, the last trace of resistance had been obliterated. By the time he approached the finishing straight, there was time even to take a Union Flag from a watching spectator, wrap it around his shoulders, and walk the final few metres.

As a demonstration of endurance sport, it was simply breathtaking. Alistair then waited half a minute to greet his brother and, for a brief moment, the two training partners and housemates embraced. There were then worrying scenes, however, as Jonny slumped to the floor next to the main grandstand behind the finishing zone. Medics were called and, after placing ice packs all over his torso and wrapping his head in a cold wet towel, he had to be taken to a nearby tent in a wheelchair.

For the brothers’ parents, Keith and Cathy, the first emotion was concern for their son’s welfare rather than elation at their joint achievement. Alistair had been through something similar himself in a triathlon at Hyde Park two years ago and, having been sick and nearly passed out, Jonny eventually emerged for a medal ceremony that had been delayed a full hour.

“I felt awful as I crossed the line and after I got in the tent I felt worse and worse,” said Jonny. “I just overheated and I collapsed. I’m not actually sure if I passed out. I may have done. I really don’t know.”

And the reaction of his parents? “They weren’t really worried about the race, they were more worried about me,” said Jonny. Yet when the two brothers did finally step on to the podium, the noise from an estimated 200,000 crowd reverberated all the way around central London.

It had been the same at 11.30am when the brothers were first introduced onto the pontoon along the Serpentine at the beginning of the race. Jonny and Alistair had always hoped that the event would be a true athletic test, rather than overly tactical, and they were delighted at the way Richard Varga stretched the field with an extraordinary fast split after the 1500m swim of 16min 56sec.

Jonathan Brownlee in the Cycling stage during the Men's Triathlon

Both Brownlees were in the top six after the swim, with the race then reforming into a 22-strong group for most of the 43km cycle. It was during this section that Jonny was informed of the 15sec time penalty he had incurred for mounting his bike fractionally before the changeover zone. He initially thought it had been Alistair who had incurred the penalty. “I didn’t realise I had done anything wrong,” he said. “I heard the No 31 and I thought, ‘Alistair’s got a penalty, what an idiot’.”

Alistair later called the pedantic rules “disgusting” and accused triathlon organisers of “ruining” the sport. “It’s not as if we are throwing helmets at each other,” he said. Happily, though, the final outcome was unaffected. Only Gomez and Jonny had even attempted to follow Alistair’s initial burst of pace in the concluding 10km run.

Jonny, though, was to lose contact halfway through the run and then, just as they passed the Diana Memorial with 3km to go, Gomez was also distanced. At that moment, the race had been won and a remarkable family dream was realised.